January means plenty of boats out fishing in rough weather, and with that comes a higher risk for problems at sea.
The F/V Clipper Epic suffered a power failure near Unalaska this weekend. The 167-foot freezer longliner was successfully escorted to the Spit Dock on Sunday.
Earlier last week, the F/V Glacier Bay was brought in after experiencing an engine room fire. The 154-foot longliner was accompanied by the S/V Redeemer on January 18, and it is currently undergoing repairs at Magone Marine Service.
Fish leaving Alaska bound for foreign countries don’t carry a “Made in Alaska” label, but if they did, Chinese consumers might have noticed more of them showing up recently.
According to data released Tuesday by the Governor’s Office, China overtook Japan to become Alaska’s largest trading partner in 2011. The country imported nearly $1.4 billion in Alaskan products or about 28 percent of the state’s exports.
Catching cod in a pot might seem a little tricky, but it’s a booming fishery in Unalaska.
The Pacific pot cod season opened on New Year’s Day and catcher vessels are moving quickly through the 9,950 metric ton quota.
As of Thursday, 27 boats had caught nearly 8 million pounds of cod or 36 percent of the quota. National Marine Fisheries Service biologist Krista Milani says she’s heard the fishing has been good, although NMFS doesn’t keep track of catch rates.
So far this year most parts of the Arctic have seen less sea ice than normal, but not in the Bering Sea. Persistent cold weather has brought the ice edge to within 40 miles of the Pribilof Islands. That’s a concern for fishermen heading north for the snow crab season.
Good weather on Wednesday helped clear up some of the passenger backlog in Anchorage’s L1 terminal, but Pen Air Vice President Missy Anderson says there are still several hundred people standing by for flights.
Anderson says eight planes landed in Unalaska today and she’s expecting ten flights tomorrow if the weather holds out. She added that two freighters brought in luggage earlier today and there will be two more tomorrow.
The 180-foot crab tender Baranof was switching docks to pick up crab pots Monday morning when it beached itself on the backside of Little South America.
It didn’t take long for a crowd to form, despite blizzard conditions and a travel advisory in effect for the area.
Most of the onlookers were other crab fishermen, but one had been a sailor aboard the Baranof back in the 1970s, when it was a Coast Guard buoy tender.
Sea ice is moving south - rapidly. That’s a concern for boats heading out to catch snow crab.
Although the snow crab season opened back in October, it’s only really getting underway now. As of Tuesday, 22 boats were out fishing and other 61 have pre-registered to fish. That total is slightly down from last year despite a doubling of the snow crab quota. The harvest is set at 88.9 million pounds compared to 48.9 54.3 million last year.
Blue Cross Blue Shield is one of the largest health insurance providers in the state and the city but until recently, the Iliuliuk Clinic was not part of their network.
Clinic Director Eileen Scott says she made it a priority to change that when she was appointed in October.
“When I first got here I was reading a lot of the consultant reports, when they spoke to the community about what their needs were. And of course I met with a lot of the community leaders and one of the things that came up was why we didn’t have a contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield.”
A major reform announced last month by the Federal Communications Commission promises to extend high-speed internet access to people in rural areas across the country. But the 27 percent of Alaskan consumers whose internet comes through a satellite won’t see the same degree of improvement.
The Federal Communications Commission is trying to address internet inequality on a national scale by shifting $4.5 billion in government subsidies away from traditional telephone networks toward internet-based systems. The Commission released the full Connect America reform order last month. It’s a 759-page document, but the basic gist is that telephone companies are going to have to offer affordable broadband to their customers if they want to continue receiving federal funding.
